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The Commoner
NOVEMBER, 1916
13
gered by cargoes of ammunition, whether that
danger comes from possible Explosions within or
from possible attacks from without. Passengers
and ammunition should not travel together.
The attempt to prevent American citizens from
incurring these risks is entirely consistent with
the effort which our government is making to
prevent attacks from submarines.
The use of one remedy does not. exclude tn
use of the other. The most familiar Illustration
is to be found in the action -taken by municipal
authorities during a riot. It is the duty of the
mayor to suppress the mob and to prevent vio
lence, but he does not hesitate to warn citizens
to keep off the streets during the riots. He does
not question their right to use the streets, but,
for their own protection and in the Interest of
order, he warns them not to incur the risks in
volved in going upon the streets when men are
shooting at each other.
The President does not feel justified in tak
ing the action above suggested. That Is, he
does not feel justified first, In suggesting the
submission of the pontroversy to investigation,
or, second, in warning the people not to incur
the extra hazards in traveling on belligerent
ships or on ships carrying ammunition. And he
may be right in the position he has taken, but as
a private citizen I am free to urge both of these
propositions and to call public attention to these
remedies in the hope of "securing such an ex
pression of public sentiment as will support the
President in employing these remedies if In the
future he finds it consistent with his sense of
duty to favor them.
(From statement issued after resignation as
Secretary of State.)
PERSUASION VS. FORCE
To the American People:
You now have before you the text of the note
to Germany the note which It would have been
my official duty to sign had I remained secretary
of state. I ask you to sit in judgment upon my
decision to resign rather than -to share respon
sibility for it. I am sure you will credit me with
honorable, motives, but that is' hot enough. Good
intentions could hot atone for a mistake at such
a time, on such a subject and under such cir
cumstances. If your verdict is against me, I ask
no mercy; I deserve none if I have acted un
wisely. A man in public life must act according
to his conscience, but however conscientiously
ho acts he must be prepared to accept without
complaint any condemnation which his own er
rors may bring upon him; he must be willing
to bear any deserved punishment from ostracism
to execution. But hear me before you pass
sentence.
The President and I agree In purpose; we de
sire a peaceful solution of the dispute which has
arisen between theUnited States and Germany.
We not only desire it, but with equal fervor we
pray for it, but we differ irreconcilably as to the
means of securing it. If it were merely a per
sonal difference, it would be a matter of little
moment, for all the presumptions are on his
side the presumptions that go with authority.
He is your President; I am a private citizen with
out office or title but one of 100,000,000 in
habitants. But the real issue is not between persons; it
is between systems, and I rely for vindication
wholly upon the strength of the position taken.
Among the influences which governments em
ploy in dealing with each other there are two
"which are pre-eminent and antagonistic? force
and persuasion. Force speaks with flrmneBS and
acts through the ultimatum; persuasion employs
argument, courts investigation and depends upon
negotiation. Force represents the old system
the system that must pass away; persuasion rep
resents the new system the system that has
been growing, all too slowly, It is true, but grow
ing for 1,900 years. In the old system war is
the chief cornerstone war which at its best Is
little better than war at its worst; the new sys
tem contemplates a universal brotherhood es
tablished through the uplifting power of ex
ample. -
If I correctly interpret the note to Germany,
u conforms to the standards of 'the old system
rather than to the Tules of the new, and I cheer
fully admit that il is abundantly suppprted by
precedents precedents written in characters of
mood upon almost every page of hiiman history.
Austria furnishes the most recent "precedent;, it
was Austria's firmness that dictated ,the -ultimatum
against' Serhla which set the world at
n ?ry rS er now Participating in this'un
S2S?1 S011?1 ha8 "Maimed his desire for
ff til- ind in responsibility fr "" war, and
11 onl,y charitable that wo should credit all of
them with good faith. Thoy desired peace, but
they sought it according to the rules of tho old
system. They believed that firmness would give
the best assurance of the maintenance of peace,
and: faithfully following precedent, thoy wont so
near the fire that thoy wero, one after another,
sucked into the contest.
Never before havo the frightful follies of this
ratal system been so clearly revealed as now. Tho
most civilized and enlightened aye, tho most
Christian of the nations of Europe aro grap
pling with each other as if in a death struggle
They are sacrificing the best and bravest of their
sons on the "battlefield; they are converting their
garden? into cemeteries and their homes into
houses of mourning; thoy aro taxing tho wealth
of today and laying a burden of debt on tho toil
of the future; they have filled the air with thun
derbolts more deadly than those of Jove, and
they have multiplied the perils of the deep. Add
ing fresh fuel to tho flame of hate, they havo
daily devised new horrors, until one side Is en
deavoring to drown noncombatant men, women
and children at sea, while tho other side seeks
to starve non-combatant men, women and child
ren on land. And they are so absorbed in al
ternate retaliations and in competitive cruelties
that they seem, for tho time being, blind to tho
rights of neutrals and deaf to the appeals of hu
manity. A tree is known by its fruit. Tho war
in Europe is the ripened fruit of the old system.
This is what firmness, supported by force, has
done In the old world. Shall wo invito it to
cross the Atlantic? Already the jingoes of our
own country have caught the rabies from tho
dogs of war. Shall the opponents of organized
slaughter be silent while the disease spreads?
As a humble follower of the Prince of Peace,
as a devoted believer in tho prophecy that "they
that take the sword shall perish with the sword,'
I beg to be counted among thoBe who earnestly
urge the adoption of a course in this matter
which will leave no doubt of our government's
willingness to continue negotiations with Ger
many until an amicable understanding is
reached, or at least until, the stress of war over,
we can appeal from Philip drunk with carnage
to Phrilip sobered by the memories of an historic
friendship and a recollection of the innumerable
ties of kinship that bind the Fatherland to the
United States,
Some nation must lift the world out of the
black night of war into the light of that day
when "swords shall be beaten into plowshares."
Why not make that honor ours? Some day
why not now? the nations will learn that en
during peace can not be built upon fear that
good will does not grow upon the stalk- of vio
lence. Some day the nations will place their trust in
love, the weapon for which there is no shield;
in love, that suffereth long and is kind; in love,
that is not easily provoked, that beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things; in love which, though de
spised as weakness by the worshipers of Mars,
abideth when all else fails.
(From statement issued after resignation as
Secretary of State.)
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THE WAR IN EUROPE AND ITS "LESSONS
FOR US
The War as It Is
No matter by what standard you -measure this
war, it is without precedent or parallel. I will
not call it the GREATEST war in history, for
the word great implies something more than
bigness. When we speak of a great institution
or a great movement, we have in mind something
more than mere size. There have been, I think,
greater wars than this, but none that approached
it in bigness. It is the biggest war ever known
if we measure it by the population of the na
tions at war never before have so many people
lived in belligerent nations. It Js also the big
gest war of which history tells If we measure it
by the number of enlisted men who face each
other upon its many Tmttleflqlds, The estimates
run from twenty-one to thirty-one millions, Ra
ther than risk, exaggeration, .let us take the low
est estimate; it is sufficient to make the war im
pressive.' In fact, the number js so great that
the mind can scarcely comprehend it. Let me
translate it into .everyday, language, by compar
ing it with our voting pppulation. Wo hare
rtovor cast as many as twphty-oae million vote
at an election. That means that if all in every
stato who havo on a single day exercised the
right of suffrage could be gathored together in
ono place, tho concourse, vast as it would be,
would fall several millions short of tho number
now actually ongaged In fighting.
More than three million have boon wounded
thus far. If on any part of tho globo one ha
drod thousand persons woro swept to death by
pestilence, or flood, or famine, tho world would
stand appalled; and yot, in a littlo mo than a
year, more than thirty times one hundred thou
sand havo boon summoned to moot their God,
and every ono owes his death to tho deliberate
intent and act of a followman. Moro than tea
millions havo been wounded this will give you
obmo idea of the awful toll that this awful war
is exacting in life and suffering.
It is biggest, too, if wo moasuro It by Its cost
moro than four hundred millions each week.
Thoy havo borrowed forty billions and spont
enough to build an hundred Panama canals.
If wo measure tho war by tho dcstructlvones
of the implements omployed, nothing oo hor
rible has over been known before. Thoy used
to bo content to uso tho earth's surfaco for the
manouvers of war, but now thoy havo taken pos
session of tho air, and thunderbolts more deadly
than tho thunderbolts of Jove fall as If from tho
clouds on unsuspecting people. And thoy have
taken possession of tho ocean's depths as well,
and death dealing torpedoes rise from out tho
darkness to multiply tho perils of tho sea. Thoy
havo substituted a long range rlilo-Xor a short
range rifle, a big mouthed gun for a .little
mouthed gun, a dreadnaught for a battleship,
and a nuper-dreadnaught for a dreadnaught, to
which thoy havo added the submarine. And
they now pour liquid fire on battle lines and
suffocate soldiors in the trenches with poisonous
gases. Inventive genius has beon exhausted to
find now ways by which man can kill his fellow
man! And tho nations which aro at war aro -not
barbarous nations thoy arc among the most
civilized of tho earth; neither are thoy heathoii
nations they aro among tho Christian nations
of tho globe. They all worship tho sahio God;
and nearly all of them approach that God
through tho same mediator. Thoy offer thoir
supplications to a common Heavenly Father and
then rise up to take each other's lives.
?
Tho Cause of the War
And now allow me to ask you to consider tho
false philosophy out of which this war has grown
and the natural results of that false philosophy.
Before speaking of tho real cause, it is worth
while to noto that some of the causes which have
produced war in the past are not responsible
for this war. There havo been race wars in his
tory wars that have been the outgrowth of
race prejudices which have sometimes extended
through centuries. But this is not a race war;
the races are all mixed up in this war. Saxon
and Slav are allies; Latin and Frank are allies;
Teuton and Turk are allies. And now, since
Bulgaria has entered the war, Slav Is fighting
Slav, and it is not yet known whether tho Greek,
if he enters the war, will side with Turk or Ro
man. The races aro inexplicably mixed.
And it is not a religious war. There have been
religious wars, although we can not understand
how a war could arlso over a religious difference.
We havo learned to believe that the right to wor
ship God according to the dictates of one's con
science is an inalienable right, and It would
never occur to us that a man would kill another
in order to prove that his religion is better than
the other man's religion. According to our the
ory, if a man desires to prove the superiority
of his religion, he lives it, for wo do not count
a religion as worthy of the name if it does not
manifest itself in the life. There have, however,
been religious wars, but this is not one of them.
On the Bosphorus the crescent and the cross
float above tho same legions; a Protestant em
peror of Germany Is. tho ally of a Catholic em
peror of Austria; dnd you will find fighting In
the same army corps representatives of three'
great branches of the Christian church Cath
olics, members of tho Church of England aad
members of the Greek church. The religions are
as badly mixed in this war as the races. u
And Itf'js not a. family war. There haverbm
famliy'.wafa -wars that have had 0lr afbd'm
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